If you’re a lawyer, you know the competition is tough. The lawyer career is projected to grow 10% by 2031, so established attorneys may have to work harder to stand out.
Fortunately, getting leads is simple when you use certain marketing techniques. Many lawyers use a strategy called lead generation. But what is it, and how do you create an attorney lead generation strategy? Here’s your guide to lead generation for lawyers.
What Is Lead Generation?
First, let’s define what a lead is. A lead is a marketing term used to describe a prospective client. To attract these prospective clients, there are different marketing ideas you can try to continue pulling them in.
This is where lead generation comes into play. Lead generation consists of tactics to get clients interested in your firm. These tactics consist of typical sales strategies and various digital marketing efforts.
The most important aspect of lead generation is that these tactics are done before the sales process can begin. With lead generation, you’re only attracting and nurturing a lead before they’re ready to call.
Why Should Lawyers Use Lead Generation?
The importance of generating leads boils down to two reasons: lead quality and tracking them down the sales funnel. But what does this mean?
Quality Lead
First, let’s define a quality lead. A quality lead is a client you want to attract. The ideal lead differs between law firms; for example, if you have different practice areas, your target client is more versatile than a firm with only one main focus. Lawyers may take other aspects into consideration, such as business type, communication preferences, demographics, background, and your client’s pain points.
To better identify your lead, lawyers can make a client persona highlighting the qualities you want to target. These qualities include gender, age, personal information, location, salary, profession, challenges, goals, and communication preferences.
Sales Funnel
All of this is essential to direct your leads down the sales funnel. Lead generation offers many benefits to your prospects. They may need a lawyer and are comparing different law firms. Others may also be curious about different legal topics and are simply searching for information. No matter the reason why prospects stumbled on your website, lead generation attracts interest and engages your audience.
For your lead generation strategy to be successful, the result must fit one of these criteria:
- Awareness
- Evaluation
- Purchase
Your leads accomplish one of these goals when going through the sales funnel. While every sales funnel is different, there are three main tiers:
- Top tier: awareness (FAQs, blog posts, whitepapers, how-to guides, etc.)
- Middle tier: interest/desire (e-books, success stories, webinars, etc.)
- Bottom tier: action (landing pages, PPC, email marketing/newsletters, etc.)
Many law firms rely on word of mouth or referral marketing. While those are core components of a lead generation strategy, your plan should include more tactics than traditional ones. The right lead generations will attract a steady stream of prospects, improving your law firm’s financial health.
Lead Generation Strategies for Lawyers
Your lead generation strategy should provide compelling information that entices prospects to want to schedule a consultation. The best law firms have a well-designed website, a blog, social media pages, and an email newsletter that will fuel your lead generation strategy.
If you’re still unsure where to start, here are proven lead generation strategies for law firms.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization and consists of tactics that improve your visibility on search engine results. There are various ways to do this. Many law firms offer an FAQ page that answers common questions clients ask. Prospective leads may also enter these queries in Google; when answering these queries, Google’s bots can crawl your website, identifying the data and extracting your response to the query.
Because SEO relies heavily on writing, SEO and content marketing (which we will discuss later) go hand-in-hand. But there are other examples of law firm SEO. For example, many lawyers rely heavily on local SEO, since you’re likely attracting clients in your area. There are tactics you can use so Google can identify your location.
For example, list your NAP (name, address, and phone number) throughout your website and optimize your blog and web content for localized keywords. Creating a Google Business Profile will also improve your local search engine rankings.
Landing Pages
A landing page is a web page that centers around a call to action (CTA). Unlike other types of web pages, a landing page is minimal in terms of content, and the option to contact your law firm is front and center. Still, the content displayed is compelling enough to entice prospects to call your law firm.
These web pages emphasize user-friendliness and easy navigation. At the same time, the page has a professional design and is polished. The best landing pages have a responsive design, meaning they look and function well on all devices.
Email Marketing
After your prospects become interested in your brand, they may sign up for email newsletters. With email newsletters, you can send prospects more content to entice them to become clients. This includes downloadable resources, industry news, videos, testimonials, and regional legal updates.
Content Marketing
“Content is king.” This is a quote that marketers know and communicate to other businesses. But in the legal world, the content you create should resonate with your target audience.
What type of content resonates with your audience? This is where SEO comes in. As stated previously, your prospects may go to Google and enter search queries, asking for legal advice and information. Your firm can answer these questions and educates prospects on these legal topics.
If your audience enjoys your content, they may share it on their social media channels. This will open you up to more brand awareness and may make you one step closer to becoming an industry leader. If you become an industry leader, you’ll attract more interest to your firm, resulting in a steady stream of clients.
So, where can your law firm start? Write blogs on legal topics, such as on questions your clients typically ask or queries you commonly see on Google. You can publish general guides to familiarize your clients with the legal process; for example, if you’re crafting a personal injury lead generation strategy, you can publish a guide such as “How to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit,” and end the blog with a CTA to schedule a consultation.
Certain pages also perform well on blogs and search engine results. FAQ pages are the perfect example. Compile questions your clients ask and ones you find on Google, answering each question and creating a devoted FAQ page. You can always update this with new questions or update your answers.
Whitepapers and E-Books
Other content types go more in-depth. These include whitepapers and e-books. Save more specific and detailed topics for this content, such as localized laws and advice. Many lawyers choose to gate this content, either through payment or by subscribing to your email newsletter. Understand this is entirely up to you and you can choose to make this content public.
Video Marketing
Content is also more than writing. For example, video content marketing is now the norm in content creation. Because of this demand, it’s quicker and more affordable to create marketing videos. Your law firm can create videos that share important legal information and answer client questions. When prospects see your attorneys discussing legal topics, it will make your law firm seem more trustworthy.
Webinars
If you want a trustworthy way to reach a larger audience, webinars are becoming more popular—so much so that 86% of businesses include webinars in their marketing strategy.
In order to achieve success from your webinar, it’s important that you know how to create an effective one. Don’t only rely on slides or content users can find on your blog. Include more live elements in your webinar, such as a Q&A session, presentation, and audience participation.
It’s also recommended that you save your webinar so it can be viewed later. Most video platforms will save the video to your computer, and you can upload that to your video platform or social media channels.
Remember that you won’t be able to discuss individual cases in these webinars or give away any client information.
Social Media Marketing
At this point, you likely have social media outlets. 90% of businesses say social media marketing increases their exposure and brand awareness, making it a simple way to gain new clients.
The most popular social media platforms are lawyers include:
You should prioritize certain details when creating a social media marketing strategy. These include:
- Demonstrating thought leadership
- Relationship-building with your clients
- Answering questions
- Collecting feedback
- Using different mediums (text and media)
- Running paid ad campaigns
You can also look at competitors for advice on crafting effective social media posts.
Lead Generation for Lawyers: Do You Need Help?
Lead generation for lawyers is easier said than done. And if you’re a busy lawyer, you likely don’t have time to handle your own lead generation strategy. That’s why you may need a professional to handle lead generation for attorneys. Our business offers web design, SEO, graphic design, and conversion rate optimization. We can cater to different industries, including legal.
Contact us today to request a free proposal.
